Here Is The FT's Gold Price Manipulation Article That Was Removed

Two days ago the FT released a clear, informative and fact-based article, titled simply enough "Gold price rigging fears put investors on alert" in which author Madison Marriage, citing a report by the Fideres consultancy, revealed that global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50 per cent of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013.

To those who hve been following the price action of gold in the past four years, gold manipulation is not only not surprising, but accepted and widely appreciated (because like the Chinese those who buy gold would rather do so at artificially low rather than artificially high fiat prices) and at this point, after every other product has been exposed to be blatantly and maliciously manipulated by the banking estate, it is taken for granted that the central banks' primary fiat alternative, and biggest threat to the monetary status quo, has not avoided a comparable fate.

And since we can only assume the article has been lost to FT readers due to some server glitch, and not due to post-editorial consorship or certainly an angry phone call from the Bank of England or some comparable institution, we are happy to recreate it in its entirety. Just in case someone is curious why gold price rigging fears should put investors on alert.

Gold price rigging fears put investors on alert

By Madison Marriage

Global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50 per cent of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013, according to analysis by Fideres, a consultancy.

The findings come amid a probe by German and UK regulators into alleged manipulation of the gold price, which is set twice a day by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Bank of Nova Scotia and Société Générale in a process known as the “London gold fixing”.

Fideres’ research found the gold price frequently climbs (or falls) once a twice-daily conference call between the five banks begins, peaks (or troughs) almost exactly as the call ends and then experiences a sharp reversal, a pattern it alleged may be evidence of “collusive behaviour”.

“[This] is indicative of panel banks pushing the gold price upwards on the basis of a strategy that was likely predetermined before the start of the call in order to benefit their existing positions or pending orders,” Fideres concluded.

“The behaviour of the gold price is very suspicious in 50 per cent of cases. This is not something you would expect to see if you take into account normal market factors,“ said Alberto Thomas, a partner at Fideres.

Alasdair Macleod, head of research at GoldMoney, a dealer in physical gold, added: “When the banks fix the price, the advantage they have is that they know what orders they have in the pocket. There is a possibility that they are gaming the system.”

Pension funds, hedge funds, commodity trading advisers and futures traders are most likely to have suffered losses as a result, according to Mr Thomas, who said that many of these groups were “definitely ready” to file lawsuits.

Daniel Brockett, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel, also said he had spoken to several investors concerned about potential losses.

“It is fair to say that economic work suggests there are certain days when [the five banks] are not only tipping their clients off, but also colluding with one another,” he said.

Matt Johnson, head of distribution at ETF Securities, one of the largest providers of exchange traded products, said that if gold price collusion is proven, “investors in products with an expiry price based around the fixing could have been badly impacted”.

Gregory Asciolla, a partner at Labaton Sucharow, a US law firm, added: “There are certainly good reasons for investors to be concerned. They are paying close attention to this and if the investigations go somewhere, it would not surprise me if there were lawsuits filed around the world.”

All five banks declined to comment on the findings, which come amid growing regulatory scrutiny of gold and precious metal benchmarks.

BaFin, the German regulator, has launched an investigation into gold-price manipulation and demanded documents from Deutsche Bank. The bank last month decided to end its role in gold and silver pricing. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is also examining how the price of gold and other precious metals is set as part of a wider probe into benchmark manipulation following findings of wrongdoing with respect to Libor and similar allegations with respect to the foreign exchange market.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has reportedly held private meetings to discuss gold manipulation, but declined to confirm or deny that an investigation was ongoing.

The Financial Times has just commented on the removal of the story (Page 1 of their homepage):

"While The Financial Times strives to achieve the highest benchmarks of financial journalism and business reporting, we also understand the demographic of certain articles is vastly different than others. It is for this reason that we have temporarily pulled all articles relating to gold, silver and the possible manipulation of those markets. We are editing them to include simple language, colorful pictures, pie graphs, conspiracy nonsense and barnyard machismo. Thank you for your patience as cater to this small, weird cult. All articles will be made available again after 9am GMT."

I love this double-standard world we live in - where those with the cash get the slap on the wrist with civil court settlements and meager penalties in contrast to the graft. If I knew I was criminally above the law, and the consequence of my criminal actions could result in a fee that is below what has been stolen, then hell yeah, any douchebag that has set himself out in this world to only make money will see that the real "money" is in banking. Until some government, somewhere, has the balls to call these fuckers out in criminal proceedings, all is lost. If a banker coward (which is what these people really are) sees other cowards being led away in handcuffs because they are doing the same thing he is doing, then that is a pretty good deterrence. Umm, fractional penalties to the actus reus (assuming the slim chance you are even caught) are not any sort of deterrence. Well, the turds have all floated to the surface in this financial crime bubble that has to pop. I have argued for several years that you actually have your criminal pool right in front of us, but they have been blessed by no prosecution or intervention. So, where is a rational someone supposed to go with those observations? I didn't for a long time, but I believe it is all part of a game between government and private/corporate entities. Now, if FT, JPM, DOJ or you, yourself would like to comment on those observations, I'm all ears. Otherwise, I believe we have the very definition of fascism - "regulators" and corporate entities colluding to bring about a profitable conclusion. It IS criminal, and should not be forgotten as such. Obviously, Madison Marriage didn't get the company memo.

Precisely, so a billion bucks in fines for this one, and perhaps a few billion dollar fines for the complete fraud of which you speak, and you still have a viable business model, so why should a money-lovin' douchebag "god-worker" have any gumption to obey the "law"? Yet you go to jail for a felony if you take a flat screen TV from walmart? Well, of course people loot, they are reflections of our society. If you want to hold looters responsible, then hold bankers responsible. But that would require government to hold up the constitution under Amendment 14.

Just remember: The internet is now sanitized daily by the central bankers and national governments. Try and do any research on Obama administration officials and you'll find that their life histories, collegiete papers and records, or any negative news articles prior to their entry into government have been conveniently vanished. The Republicrats are no better as they have learned this trick also. If the Fed had its way ZH would have everything referring to the 2007-2009 financial crisis erased or the website zapped completely.

"Goooooold, Bitchez!"....its around here somewhere! You guys catch the Saddle Ridge story today? A lot of gold found in tin cans high and dry, fer crissake! Google up 'Saddle Ridge Cache' or 'Hoard' or something like that, after Saddle Ridge.

Everything is now a fear game. Medicine, pension, health, kids education. House insurance. Health insurance rigged markets etc. Today every time you are exposed to a fear based suggestion take note. You will be surprised how many times it occurs each day. If you watch MSM you will have at least 5 by lunchtime. So they are manipulating the Gold market! What's new? We are manipulated.every second of our lives by something at this stage.

Not only did the article disappear and is nowhere to be found in the FT archive, but also there is absolutely NOTHING on gold in the commodity section of the paper. Seems very much like a gold purge and radio silence. One wonders why...

There has been a huge amount of evidence supporting the case that manipulation exists on many levels. He has done nothing to disprove any of it. All he has done is say it doesn't exist and what we have seen is normal trading activity. I agree with him that not every drop in price is due to manipulation but there's been enough uncovered to prove it does exist...unless one is ignorant or stupid.

True, Serfs Up, you make an excellent point: with the interrelated, interlinked and intercorrelated rigging of ALL the markets and rates: LIBOR rate fixing, interest rate derivatives rates fixing, forex fixing, gold/silver/precious metals market fixing, naked short selling via the DTCC's Stock Borrow Program, etc., etc., is it no wonder that the banksters are under investigation that suddenly Gabriel Magee, the senior rates technologist in JPMorgan Chase's London HQ building, dies?

The only sad part about this is why the original owner never came back for them.

Was the person a miser driven by greed? Was the person ripped off before and vowed never to be ripped off again?

I guess we will never know.

BTW, imagine what condition Horse Blanket notes would be in if buried that long, or how corrupted a flash drive might be 100+ years from now if someone found a stash of bitcoins on it? (Sorry, could not resist)

Ya see, dood (that would be you, news printer), Google cached, or ISP or ASN cached, ain't the same as the FT site, ya dig?

So, to repeat, THEY TOOK IT DOWN, DOOD!

Just as the Web over the Internet didn't reach critical mass until around 2003-2004 period, until then it wasn't possible to access the cached data communications/wire transfers which originated from three sites at the WTC Towers during the 12 to 14 hours preceding 9:00AM that morning when the planes began to crash into the towers, effectively destroying the sources --- and personnel unwittingly, perhaps, involved in those transmission to offshore funds.

“When the banks fix the price, the advantage they have is that they know what orders they have in the pocket. There is a possibility that they are gaming the system.”.........................FUCKING DUH !!!!!...........game THIS <middle finger pointing to the sky> you leacherous dick smokers!

Monday Feb. 24th 2014 Editors office at FT HQ in Manhattan 2:31PM
"MADISON! Get you and your porn star sounding name in here STAT. Bank of England called. They said if we don't take your article on gold manipulation down they may just be handing a few of us here free swan dives from the 33rd! What the Hell was I thinking allowing you to post that....truthful article. Never! Ever! Post about gold and commodities without full consultation. What the Hell do you think we are? ZeroHedge? OUT OF MY SIGHT....or you'll be sent to Africa in our Mining section. Capiche?"

Or is it simple 'crisis management'? First create a problem or crisis that only you are in a position to 'fix'... control and 'manage'. If you can't control it, you create complete chaos so no one else can... Ukraine, Venezuela...go back in time and the list is endless as history repeats itself. Gold and silver are just the dividing line where reality meets the Grand Illusion. Cross over and meet the Wizard, stay on this side of the line and wonder at the insanity of all who do and think the illusion is reality and will never end. Good thing they think only in linear thoughts across that line in Flatland, and not cyclical or the repeating patterns in nature would freak them out.... speaking of parabolic curves, 'something wicked this way comes'.

I was trying to name all of the hot zones in the world right now and there is like 20.
Egypt
Thailand
Turkey
Afghanistan
Iraq
North Korea
Syria
China ADIZ
Ukraine
Venezuela
Argentina
NW Mexico sans Chapo
Japan Fuku
Italy
France
Scotland secession
Where else am I missing?

One day the affluence app will not permit you to leave your fucking garage. Oh well, at least I will be able to delight in TSLA being in the shitter.

True story..inasmcuh as you believe some jackass posting the truth. Anyhow, I used to have a luxury auto a few years ago...and then I realized I am probably just driving around with a big target on my ass. I sold the piece of shit and bought a good decent ride for about a third of the price. Who the fuck was I trying to impress anyway?

You're not supposed to drive through those neighborhoods. From Center City or Penn you just get on the Schuylkill Expressway, next stop the Main Line, or get on the East River Drive and head for Chestnut Hill. It's simple. No scary neighborhoods to see.

CD, interesting point you have raised. However, how much of a threat are .0001 percent of the global population? I am being generous with that estimate. So, a few people can see a glimpse behind the curtain....meh.

Conflict gold is a con, one which was conceived to facilitate the acquisition of gold by certain parties while at the same time allowing the IRS/NSA to know who the big stackers are (so that the information may be used as necessary at a future date).